Romans chapter 7. Thank you for that good, good
song. Oh, what a blessing it was. Oh, what a blessing. Let's start reading together
in Romans 7 and verse 15. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I can sin under the law that it is good, that it's laid
me bare, that it's exposed me to be what I am. Now it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that
in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that that I would
not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in
me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. I want to ask just a
very simple question, try to answer it by God's blessed grace.
Why does God allow sin to remain in us? Why does God allow sin
to remain in us? Paul says twice here, not I,
but sin that dwelleth in me, sin that dwelleth in me. You know, he started out, he
said he was the chief of sinners. Then he said he was less than
the least of the saints, less than the least of the apostles.
Then he said he was nothing. You know, God could have eradicated
sin, took care of sin in our flesh just like that if he'd
have been pleased to do it. But here we find a strong believer.
Here we find a man of God, an apostle, a mature believer. Dealing with the warfare that
goes on in every Christian's heart and mind. I never had a
bit of problem with sin until I got converted to God saved
me by his grace. I had no problem with it. And here's a mature believer,
strong believer, an apostle talking about that awful warfare that
goes in on in our heart and in our mind. And as we read the
word of God, read the scriptures, read what God tells us plainly
in his word. We read about the life of Noah. Noah got drunk, laid naked in
his tent. David took another man's wife
and then had his husband killed. That's an awful thing to do,
ain't it? Simon Peter denied the Lord three times. Lot, When
he tried to witness to his children when they in Sodom and Gomorrah,
he seemed as one that mocked, lost his testimony. And so we
find that there's much, much evil in sin in the most dedicated
believer. We know that these men love God.
We know that they love God. We know that they knew God. They
loved and knew God. But their sin strength stands
out. I mean, it's obvious. Great black
marks in their character and in their histories. And in our
own hearts, in our own lives, we are painfully, painfully aware
that we are sin through and through. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say we have
not sinned, you know what we do? We make God a liar. You know, we as believers, We
still, we have such a heavy load about this business of sin. We
go through this world blundering, stumbling, falling. And I know
this much about us. I know this much about us. Every
believer that I know, he never ever excuses or justifies their
own sin. They take the blame for it. They
mourn over it and they condemn themselves for it. They'd never
try to justify themselves or anything they've ever said or
done. But why did God plainly record the sins of these fathers
of the faith? And why in the world does he
allow sin to remain in us? Why when we want to be rid of
it so bad? Why when we would love to be
holy? Why when Paul says the will is
present with me? The will is present with me.
Don, the will to honor God of every moment of every day. The
will to believe God Never doubt Him, never question Him. The
will to believe the scriptures, every iota of it. The will to
never do anything but love men perfectly and love God perfectly.
That will is present with me. But anybody here know how to
perform it? But I'm going to tell you why
God allows sin to remain in us if I can. He does that to constantly
remind us that salvation is absolutely and entirely by the grace of
God. If it was not by the grace of
God, there'd not be a soul on topside of God's earth ever be
saved. Never would ever be saved. I
love the term free grace. And why I love the term free
grace is because that means there's no conditions on it. That means,
beloved, that God requires nothing from us to give it to us. And
all the conditions that was required of us to be believers, our Lord
Jesus Christ met all of them. You know, see, salvation, and
bless His holy name, thank God it's by grace. Thank God it's
by the grace of God. Salvation is not in our doing
or not doing, but it's in the doing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He was the one. who lived that sinless life.
He was the one who lived that obedient life. He was the one
that honored God all the days of his life. And it was by His
dying that sin was put away once and for all. And certainly we
did not deserve the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross. We didn't deserve Him bearing our sins on the cross.
But He gladly, willingly, joyfully went to that cross to bear our
sins. That's why the Apostle said, if it's by grace, then
it's no more works. And if it's of works, it cannot
possibly be of grace. You cannot mix them up. You see,
that's why Paul says God has saved us. called us with a holy
calling, not according to our words, but according to His own
purpose, own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ
Jesus, when? Before the world ever began.
Salvation is not in any righteousness that we do, any righteousness
that we think we may have, but it's in the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ being charged to our account. We stand only
in one place in the sight of God, and that's in the righteousness
of Christ. I have never had a righteous
thought, never done a righteous deed, never said a righteous
word that would make God to do anything for me on my part. And
if God ever does anything for me or anybody else, it's going
to be because Christ is His righteousness. Christ is our only plea before
God. And that's why the apostle said,
if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And I know this, beloved. None
of salvation at any time, any time, any time, is ever dependent
on any work or any feeling that you and I ever have. If I went
by my feelings, and I tell you this is one of the awfulest sins
that I've, I hope you don't have this happen to you, but they're
talking about sin remaining in it. When you feel lifeless, cold, You can't think a spiritual thought.
You can't pick up a Bible. You're just lifeless and cold
and you just can't get out of it. And you're empty. And you don't want to be that
way. You don't. You want to be full of the Spirit
of God, full of the Spirit of Christ. But does that mean that
I'm not saved by the grace of God? Does that mean there's no
hope for me because I don't feel like I have any emotions, any
spiritual feeling? Because my heart's cold and my
mind's empty and my life is just dreary and darkness? Does that
mean I cease to be a child of God? Oh no. I'll tell you what salvation
is dependent upon. Upon God's grace. given to us
in Christ. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ. Christ lives in me. And now let
me show you something over here in Romans 7. Let's be not Romans
7, Luke 7. Let's look at this a minute in
Luke chapter 7. You know, the longer I live,
the more I see That salvation is by the grace of God from Alpha
to Omega. Not at any moment in my life
would I remain sane if it wasn't for the grace of God. Look what he said here in Luke
7 and verse 36. And I'm just going to skip through
this to get what I want to say. And one of the Pharisees, one
place he called him Simon, that he desired the Lord Jesus to
come meet with him. And he said, I want to meet.
And a woman of the city, now listen to what it said here,
which was a sinner. When she knew that our Lord said it, meet
in the Pharisee's house, she brought in an alabaster box of
ointment, stood at his feet behind him, weeping. And I'll tell you,
it's been a long time since I've wept anything over my condition
before God and began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe
them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and annoyed
them with the oil. Wouldn't you love to have been
there doing that? Wouldn't you love to have gotten down? Wouldn't
you love to get down and kiss the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ? Now, when the Pharisees which
had bidden him saw it, he spake within him saying that this man
If he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of
woman this is that touched him. For she's a sinner. She's a sinner. It's not I, but sin that dwelleth
in me. Now listen. And our Lord said,
Simon, I've got something to say to you. And he said, Master,
go ahead. There was a certain creditor,
had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence. That's
a pile of money. And the other 50. Now this is
what I want you to see. And when they had nothing to
pay, What's nothing? What is nothing? When they had
nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. What are you going to pay with?
What are you going to pay with? Whether you owe five or five
hundred, what are you going to pay with? What are you going
to pay with? Going to pay with a few tears?
That won't work. No, no. I tell you, that's what
I'm trying to tell you. Now I want you to look at another
place with me, then I'm going to move on. But oh, this, why
God allows sin. Look with me over in 1 Peter
5. You know, God allows sin to remain this way. They frankly
had nothing to pay. Nothing to pay. I forget the preacher's name.
Maybe you all remember. He was preaching, street preaching
one time outside in a park somewhere in England. I forget who it was.
And it's one of the fairs and he got up and he says, if I told
you what you need to do to be saved and you could give me five
pounds and the Lord would save you, he said, everyone of you
go out here and get ahold of some money some way and pay for it. But if I
tell you that it's free, free, no cost to you whatsoever, but
only to the son of God, you won't take him on those terms. But
I can't take him on any other terms. In my hands, little price
I'll bring. Look what he said here in 1 Peter
chapter 5 and verse 10, talking about salvation. That's why God
blessed sinners. So we see that salvation is altogether
grace, not by our feelings, not by our doings or not doings,
but the God of all grace. Oh, my. The God of all grace. All grace come from one fountain,
God. God gave us grace, we're at in
Christ. For by grace are you saved through
faith in that not of yourself, but the God of all grace. Eternal
grace. Grace given us in Christ. Electing
grace. It was grace that set us apart
from all eternity and said, that's mine. Marked us out. Set us apart. Put the mark on us. Marked our
ears and marked our feet so we'd follow the shepherd when we heard
his. An effectual grace. Grace who's effectual that actually
brings us to Christ. Ain't that what he said? Who
has called us unto his eternal glory. Blessed is the man whom
thou choosest. That's a wonderful thing. What
if he just chooses you and just left it up to you and calls us. Calls us to what? Approach you. Reaches out and gets you and
brings him to yourself. Oh, my. Not only is it affectional,
but it's enabling. Look what he said. After that,
you have suffered a while. We're going to suffer a while.
We all suffer a while every once in a while. We all suffer a while,
but it's just for a while because our life is so brief. Our life
is just a vapor. It appears here that it's gone
and we're going to suffer just a while. But our suffering works
for us a far more exceeding eternal way to glory. And all we're going
to just suffer for a while. And all enabling grace after
and I'll tell you something I know and everybody here knows this
you've been through it. That God's grace is really truly sufficient. When it happens to you no matter
what it is God's grace will keep you going on when nothing else
will. God's grace will get you up and
get you started in your day, get you to pick up your Bible,
get you to call on people and be comforting to people and be
kind to people and gracious to people and get outside yourself
and want to do for somebody else. God's grace is sufficient for
anything that happens in your life. If he puts you in the middle
of the fire, he's going to go in it with you. If He takes you
out into deep waters that you feel like is going over your
head, He's going to be walking right beside you. And He says,
them waters are not going to overflow you. And that fire is
not going to burn you. He said, because I've redeemed
you, I've bought you, I've paid for your mind. And oh, beloved,
enlightening grace. When He gives us grace, you know
what He does? He gives us more grace to go with the grace He
gave us. He's giving grace right now.
He gave me grace when I got up this morning. And He's giving
me grace right now, so He gives us grace for grace. Bruce is
going to give you some more grace. Paul is going to give you grace
when you get up here. He's giving you grace to listen
now. He's going to give you grace to preach. Oh, enabling grace. And oh, and listen to this, ensuring
grace. Look what He said after He suffered
a while. Listen to this. Make you perfect. Make you perfect. Oh, make you perfect. Listen
to this. Establish you. Strengthen you. And settle you
down. Oh, that's grace. And all I'm
going to tell you, back over in our text. Let me, so he shows
us that he lets sin remain in us. So we'll know that salvation's
all together the grace of God. Thank God for grace. I'll just
love the word grace. I rejoice at the word grace. Sovereign grace. Free grace.
immutable grace, electing grace, eternal grace, grace, and more
grace. And then look what he said in
verse 18 here of Romans 7. And he lets sin remain in us
for this reason, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells
no good thing. He gonna teach us that there's
nothing good in us whatsoever. And when Paul talks about the
flesh, he's talking about his old nature. But sin manifests
itself in a body. And I tell you, in this flesh,
in our old nature, remains the potential to any evil or sin
that anybody else can do. There really does. And if you're
not aware of that, You just don't know much. I ain't
saying it that way, but if you're not conscious that it remains
in you because of your flesh, the potential. You say I ain't
never murdered anybody, but I tell you what, coming in here today
in the rain and the way these people drive around here. I didn't say it, but I thought
it. That's what I'm talking about. You see, it's not me, but it's
sin that dwells in me. Me is the new man. That's the
old man that wants to do those. But that's what I'm telling you.
There's any potential. Any potential. Isaiah said it
like this. He said, that all of our righteousnesses
are as a filthy rag, and we are as a leaf which doeth fade. And
he said in Galatians 5.17, he said, the flesh lusts against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And they're absolutely
contrary one to the other. And he says, because they war
against one another, you cannot do the things that you would.
Now, your flesh will not let you be as spiritual as you want
to be. You come in this service tonight. You want to listen.
You want to pay attention. You want to be blessed, you pray
for the service, you come a long way. But this flesh sometimes
hinders you in a service. You can't be as spiritual as
you want to. And then, your flesh sometimes wants to go places
and do things and then the spirit won't let you go that far. So
they just, you cannot do, you can't be as sinful as you would,
and you can't be as spiritual as you would. Why? Because I
know that in me, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Huh? Look what he says down here
in Romans 8, 12. Let me show you this something. He said, therefore, brethren,
we are not debtors. We're debtors not to the flesh
to live after the flesh. Let me ask you something. What
is your flesh ever done for you as a believer? What is your flesh
ever done for you? What do you owe your flesh? What
do you owe it? What do you owe it? What has
it contributed to your salvation? What has it contributed to your
walk with Christ? What has it contributed to your
relationship with Christ? What has it contributed to you
being done with sin? We're debtors not to the flesh. Paul said, I know this, that
we worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. Remember all the evil hard thoughts
you've had of others? And I know you've never done
this. You've never had good thoughts about yourself. You've never
had prideful thoughts that you've had about yourself. You've never
tried to make your light shine and put somebody else's out.
I know you never have done that. I know you've never have thought
too highly of yourself. You just wouldn't do that. No, you wouldn't brag on yourself.
You wouldn't let anybody know what you've done for so-and-so.
You wouldn't let anybody know how good you was to that person.
You wouldn't let anybody know how generous you was. You just
wouldn't do that. And you never would get up and preach and say,
boy, boy, man, them fellas really, I'm selling the corn now. Oh, we got so much flesh in us. Marvin, I'm acutely aware of
it, ain't you? So acutely aware of it. And when you should have
shown love and kindness, and you put it off and put it
off and put it off till that act of kindness passes through,
that word of grace that you would have been a blessing to somebody
has done went past. See people in trouble and heartache
and sorrow and you get cold and indifference Oh, my. The flesh is so weak. So weak. And there dwells no good thing
in it. Oh, I'd be so glad. That's why
Paul said, what did he say? He said, oh, who shall deliver
me from this body of death? Carrying this old body, this
old rotten, stinking flesh. And when somebody's been dead
a while, And it don't take long for them to start putrefying,
and start corrupting, and start stinking. And I tell you what,
the longer we've carried this body, the longer we've carried
this flesh, and we've carried it, and it stinks, and it's awful,
and it's got maggots in it, it's got wretchedness in it, it's
got corruption in it, it's got everything that's despicable.
And we wait for the day when God will reach and take it all.
And we'll be clothed with that new body, that blessed Christ,
and made like unto Him once and for all. Oh, this flesh is so
weak. Don't put it, oh, don't ever,
ever put any confidence in it. And I'll tell you another reason
why He lets sin remain in us, is to teach us to be patient
with our brethren. Oh, to be patient with our brethren.
When we see a man or a woman sin a sin, do something. We ought not never conclude that
that person has no grace because he committed a sin and you saw
him or know that he done it. If we did, we'd have to, if we
were honest, have to conclude that we didn't have any grace
either when we sin. Is that not right? That's why
he says, brethren, if any man see a brethren overtaken in a
fault, ye that are spiritual, spiritual, restore such a one
in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. And oh my, who hasn't acted uncharacteristic
of grace? If you'd have been around and
saw Noah, you'd have said, boy, when you
saw him staggering around with that wine on him and he fell
down in his tent, you'd have said, boy, there ain't no way
Noah could be a Christian. Impossible. When you saw David look down
there at Bathsheba and said, I want her and I'm the king and
I'm going to have her. And if you saw somebody do that,
and ended in something like that, you say, there's David. Oh, David
couldn't possibly be a Christian. But you know what he said on
his deathbed? He said, the Lord hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, ensured. Oh, listen, when you saw Simon
Peter, if you'd have saw Simon Peter standing there, and heard
him deny the Lord three times after he promised it. He said,
Lord, I'll go with you to death, to prison, don't make no difference
to me. And then when the Lord looked at him, he went off and
started crying, cussing, cussing, just, oh, I just, you'd have
said, Simon Peter didn't know God from a goat. He couldn't
have possibly been a Christian. Have you ever acted uncharacteristic
of the grace of God? Oh, sometimes we get, I know,
I say you don't do it. I know you don't. But have you ever concluded that
somebody, because of the way they act or the thing they've
done, is not a Christian, not a believer, because they didn't
meet your standard? Because they didn't act the way
you thought they did and say the things they thought you should
say? Maybe they failed. If you ever had any of your children
go out and get dirty and nasty and everything, when they come
in, you don't whip them for it, do you? You know what you do? You take them in, you put them
in the shower, and you take off their clothes, and you put band-aids
on their knees, and you put them in the shower and put clean clothes
on. You how you think Christ would
treat us? Oh, bless his name. I sure am thankful he don't treat
me the way I treat him. the way I treat other people. If he did, Don, there'd be no
hope for me. And I'll tell you something else,
and then I'll just give you a minute here. Look over with me in 1
John chapter 2. Oh, let's be patient with one
another. Let's love one another. You know, if you caught me at
any time, I've said this so many times, if you all really knew
me, I'd never get an invitation to come to your house. If you
really knew me, I'd never get to come to your house, never
get set at your dinner table. If you really knew me, if you
could see me the way I really am, the way I feel at times,
you see, I wouldn't have that fella in my house for nothing. I just wouldn't. He's just too
sorry, too rough, uses too bad a language,
too mean, Not thankful enough, he won't
appreciate the food when he gets it. Oh boy, that's what I say if
you knew me, if you really knew me. But ain't you grateful that God
takes us, you know we sing that song, just as I am, without one
plea, but that thy blood was shed. Ain't you grateful that
God takes you just as you are, just as you are. All right. Here's another reason
he allows sin to remain in us, to remind us that when we do
sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the
righteous. My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. Oh, don't. He's not telling us
to. But if you do, and if any man
sin, we have an advocate. He's the best lawyer for the
worst case. He only takes He only takes the worst cases. He
only takes people that's guilty. He only takes people that's...
He don't take good folks. He don't take... No, no. He only
takes the sinful. And we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. I'm thankful to this
verse of Scripture. If any man sin, we have an advocate.
We got a lawyer. Jesus Christ. And he gives us
his title. And then what He is, Jesus Christ
the righteous. Not just any, the righteous one. And you know, and I say I'm thankful
for this. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Oh, if I could have been cast
out, I'd have been cast out a thousand times. But oh, ain't you grateful
when we sin? And I wonder how much we have
in this service. We think sin has to be done with the hand.
But oh, the mind, the thoughts. But anyway, he goes on, you know,
and if we sin, we don't lose our salvation. God don't cast
us out of his family. He don't say I'm done with you,
I'm through with you. No, no. We may lose the peace
and the joy of our salvation, may even lose the comfort of
it. But we cannot break the bond of the covenant of grace. God
and Christ entered into a covenant and the shepherds responsible
for the sheep. The father gave us to Christ
and Christ said of all that you've given me, I've lost nothing and
I'll present them to you at the last day, standing faultless
and without blame and without blemish before you in love. And
our Lord Jesus Christ will tell you something. When he stands
up, and pleads for us. He don't never talk about you.
He don't even talk about your sin. No, no. Oh, Lord Jesus. Lord, I sinned. I said this awful
thing. I did this awful deed. My eyes beheld something they
shouldn't have beheld. My ears listened to things they
shouldn't have heard. My mind and my heart went places they
shouldn't have went. And he stands up and he says,
Father, Donny Bell's such a good fella.
He didn't mean to do it. He's really sincere. He's an
awful good guy. He's a, you know. No, he stands
up and says, Lord, Jesus is up for the Father. And if God ever,
if God ever has anything to do with me or you in any time, It's
going to be because of Christ's pleading on our behalf. And he
stands up and he says, Father, forgive them. And here's the
evidence why you should forgive them. There's my right hand.
There's my left hand. See the prints in them? See my
side? That's the evidence that you're
going to forgive them. That's the evidence. My blood,
my pleading, my righteousness, you gave them to me. And you
told me that you'd receive them for my sake. Father, you gave
them to me. And He pleads only His. We aren't
mentioned. He only talks of Himself. And
God, the only person that God is interested in in this world
is His Son and our relationship to Him. If we know Christ, God
receives us. If we don't know, He doesn't.
And if we're in Christ, then God has us. And if we're not
in Christ, everything we have is in one blessed person. And
if we speak to God, Christ's got to take it and interpret
it for us. And remember this. Did anything
you ever do commend you to God? Do you reckon anything bad thing
you do will separate you from God? If your badness or your
goodness never got into your salvation, how's it going to
keep you in it? Oh my. Well, let me give you
my last one. First John 2 15 and I'm done.
I hope I haven't preached too long. Y'all listen so well and I appreciate
it. so generous and so kind. He allows
sin remain in us to do this one thing too, not only to teach
us that salvation is altogether of grace, to have no competence in the
flesh, to be patient with our brethren, to show us that we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And
here's what else he does. He does this to wean us from
this world. Would you reckon we would ever
want to leave this place if it wasn't for Christ weaning us
from it? He's gonna have to wean us off this world. Gotta wean
us from it. Ain't that what he said in John
2, 15? For all that's in the world, love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, this
system, this ambition and pride, materialism and covetousness
and selfishness and self-love and hatred and emulations. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. All that's in the world
is the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of
life. And not a father has nothing to do with any of that. And this
world's going to pass away and everything about it. But he that
doeth the will of God abideth forever. And, oh, beloved, he
makes us want to get out of this world. He makes us want to be
done with it. Want out of it, want to be done
with it. And we want that joy and peace
in believing. And we find out that the way
of the transgressor is hard. And he makes us desire Christ. as he weans us from this world
to desire our Lord Jesus and his salvation and presence more
than anything else on this earth. Gotta have him. Take everything
else away, but don't take my master. Take my mind, but don't take
my master. Take my arm, but don't take my
master. Take my wife, but don't take my master. Flip in two. Take my son, but don't take my
master. Take my grandchildren, but don't
take my master. They're all the Lord's. They
belong to Him. I belong to Him. But one thing,
the relationship will never ever be done. And that's the relationship
we have with Him. Look what the Apostle said, and
I'm through with this right here. Philippians 3.12. Oh, He weans us from this world
to make us desire Christ and His salvation, His presence more
than anything else in this earth. Not as though I had already attained,
either we're already perfect, but I follow after. If that I
may apprehend, may grasp why Christ laid hold on me. Brethren, I caught not myself
to have apprehended, but one thing I do. forgetting those
things which are behind, reaching, reaching, reaching, reaching,
reaching forth to those things which are, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. Let
us, therefore, as many be perfect, be thus minded. Let's give ourselves
and make our life to be one that seeks the Lord Jesus Christ and
press towards, you know, the reward that we're going to get
in glory, you know what the prize of the high calling of God is?
Christ himself is the prize. That's why we're pressing Christ's
prize. He's the prize. That's a wonderful prize, ain't
it? Amen. Lord bless you. Oh, I needed that. That was such
a blessing.